DIGITAL. TRENDS. FUTURE.

21
Jul

Biomimic Marketing

The new trend in Marketing. Getting a touch of nature into your technology products. Imitate and mime biological structures, gestures and movements and merge it with the latest 3D animation methodoligies – The Result: “Biomimic Marketing”.

Biomimic Marketing in Action – Watch this example from AT&T:

1stAveMachine-CelebrateSpring from MotiongraphicLAB on Vimeo.

Another example of Biomimic Marketing is BMW’s Concept Car “Gina”:

20
Jul

Dog Modding

I just love the new trend from China “Dog Modding”. Here you can see a nice “Tiger Dog”.
Don’t you think?

Tiger Dog Modding - Tiger Hund
The newest thing amongst dog owners in China seems to have emerged from this understandable fantasy and could be described as something like dog-modding: the color-dying of dogs, to make them look like other animals. Like this retriever, that is painted like a tiger.

Fake or Reality?
Look at this nice Panda Dog.
Panda Dog - Dog Modding
A more convincing example of dog-modding can be found in Wuhan, capital of the Hubei province, central China. A Chinese man modded his dog into a Panda – and did quite well so. As many will know, the Panda is a threatened animal, but also the national symbol of China. All living Panda’s in zoo’s all over the world are gifts from the Chinese government and are also considered state-property of the People’s Republic of China. The Panda es extremely popular in China – you could speak of a cult almost. But keeping a panda for yourself, of course, is strictly forbidden. So here the simulation comes in handy.

(Via NextNature)

15
Jul
15
Jul

Apple Flatscreen TV

After the launch of the iPhone 4, what does Apple work on right now?

Steve Jobs said at the “All things digital” (D8) conference last month that “Apple TV is still a hobby”. Jobs explained that the market is complicated due to the diversity of key players and a complex distribution system. Between the lines you could understand that Steve Jobs is thinking about a controllable and user-friendly system. An ecosystem which Apple already created in the Music (iPod) and in the Mobile (iPhone) market.

So that’s why I created a fast scribble of an “Apple Flatscreen TV” which I would mount onto my living room wall. My draft of the Apple Flatscreen TV would have a 50″ LED Screen with an improved small remote control, connectivity to my iPad, iPhone and other Macs in the house, a wireless connection to a Bang & Olufson speaker system and a big harddrive of approx. 5 TB.

Is Apple already working on such an “Apple Flatscreen TV”?

Apple Flatscreen TV

13
Jul

GE’s $ 200 million open innovation challenge

Today GE announced the start of a $200 million open innovation challenge that seeks breakthrough ideas to create a smarter, cleaner, more efficient electric grid, and accelerate the adoption of more efficient grid technologies. GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt unveiled the challenge, the “GE ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid,” here today.

The global challenge invites technologists, entrepreneurs and start-ups to share their best ideas and come together to take on one of the world’s toughest challenges – building the next-generation power grid to meet the needs of the 21st century. The challenge is one of the largest ever and is open immediately at www.ecomagination.com/challenge.

“Innovation is the engine of the global effort to transform the way we create, connect and use power,” Immelt said. “At GE we have invested broadly and deeply in digital energy solutions and see this as a substantial market for us, but we can’t do it alone. We want to work with our partners to make sure we have a comprehensive digital energy offering. This challenge is about collaboration and we are inviting others to help accelerate progress in creating a cleaner, more efficient and economically viable grid. We want to jump-start new ideas and deploy them on a scale that will modernize the electrical grid around the world.”

The Challenge, launched in collaboration with leading venture capital firms Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer and RockPort Capital, and Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief, Wired magazine, is part of GE’s ecomagination initiative, a global commitment to build innovative clean energy technologies and will help fund the most promising ideas. Proposals are sought in three, broad categories: Renewables, Grid and Eco Homes/Eco Buildings. Select Challenge entrants will be offered the opportunity to develop a commercial relationship with GE through:

  • Investment: the $200 million capital pledge of GE and its partners will be invested globally into promising start-ups and ideas
  • Validation: evaluate entrant’sbusiness strategy through in-depth discussions with GE’s technical and commercial teams
  • Distribution: explore partnership opportunities with GE to scale a business and create global reach
  • Development: leverage GE‘s technical infrastructure and GE Global Research Centers to accelerate technology and product development
  • Growth: explore opportunities for utilizing existing GE customer to take Challenge products to market

The $200 million commitment will help bring these new ideas to market by providing businesses and individuals with theopportunity to secure growth capital through GE investment and/or investment by participating venture capital firms. It is open to anyone aged 18 years or older and all legally formed entities.

06
Jul

Global Internet Users

Globally there are almost 1.6 billion Internet users, half of them from Asia – 738 million users. Most of the asian internet users are from China.
Note: Compare 1.6 billion to over 4 billion mobile phone subscribers globally – who will win?

Global Internet Users 2010